The prior art includes many teachings on stationary and mobile agricultural sprinklers and irrigators. These teachings range from massive rotary sprinkler heads mounted at intervals on stationary pipe lines in a field to extremely long self-propelled traversing sprinkler or irrigation booms which may travel in a circular path around a fixed source of water or in a linear path across a field while receiving water through a hose or hoses connected with some stationary source of water.
The present invention relates broadly to the latter type of linear traversing agricultural irrigators but is intended to fill a need which heretofore has not been satisfied by the prior art.
The commonly used linear traversing irrigator has a irrigation boom which may be as much as one-quarter mile long and which requires multiple spaced supporting and/or traction wheel units as well as couplings with supply hoses. Also a very expensive system of truss braces or tension braces is required to support the boom between its wheel units to prevent sagging or breaking.
The present invention is an economical compromise between the massive and expensive linear traversing irrigators of the prior art and mere stationary or rotary sprinkler heads on small garden variety mobile units or fixed installations. The invention provides a greatly simplified and much less expensive traversing type irrigator which can traverse a path of up to fifty feet in width where row crops are planted. The apparatus can conveniently supply double irrigation in a back-and-forth mode of operation to a swath of the stated width while connected through its hose to a fixed supply pipe or hose running across the center of a field. Other operational modes are possible, as will be described, and the apparatus is quite flexible in its usage. It fulfills a need in the art which is not satisfied by existing available equipment.